Pulmonary Hypertension Association Accredits Three More Regional Clinics

The Pulmonary Hypertension Association has accredited three more regional clinics that have demonstrated an ability to deliver high-quality care to pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients.

The three are the French Hospital Medical Center’s Central Coast Pulmonary Hypertension Center in San Luis Obispo, California; Sentara Norfolk General Hospital’s Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic in Norfolk, Virginia; and the University of Connecticut Health’s Pulmonary Vascular Disease Program in Farmington.

Each was accredited for the association’s pilot Regional Clinical Program, according to a press release. The regional initiative is part of an expansion of the association’s PH Care Centers Program.

The clinics are care providers qualified to diagnose and initiate first-line PH treatment. To  join the program, the three were subject to a strict review process assessing all facets of specialized PH care.

Regional clinics help the program to meet its goals of increasing PH patients’ access to high-quality care and fostering collaboration between regional treatment sites and those receiving the association’s Center of Comprehensive Care accreditation.

In total, six programs for children and 41 for adult have been accredited in 27 states since the program started in September 2014.

The care centers program encourages accredited sites to participate in its PHA registry, a listing of PAH or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) patients. Information from the registry is used to help evaluate PH patients’ outcomes. It also helps health professionals and researchers better understand rare diseases, opening the door to better care and treatments.

Treatment centers that participate in the registry collect information about patients when they start treatment and at six-month intervals. The idea is to use the results to measure and improve the quality of care. This includes whether a center is complying with treatment guidelines.

Eighteen accredited sites are participating in the registry program as of May 2017, with 253 patients enrolled.

The association agreed to present information about the registry initiative at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in Washington, which began May 19 and runs through May 24.

The regional clinics program will begin accepting a new round of online applications July 1.